Good Finds

On my way home from classes today, I stopped in this local and organic shop that one of my classmates recommended. They were wonderful local veggies, cheeses, meats and breads, and some pumpkins! I left with the lovely Coffee and Walnut Bread (which I had immediately with tea when I got home!), cherry tomatoes, a small batch of aspargas, an onion and some parsnips. Anyone ever heard of parsnips? We had them at formal hall - they are a little like carrots but sweet, like a sweet potato is to a potato! I am definitely going back to that shop to try their goat cheese! Yum! I also picked up a black wool coat at the charity shop for 1 pound - great finds all around today!

Mexican in England?

Last night I attended the Christian Graduate Society's International Dinner, so I decided to prepared chicken enchiladas. The dinner and 'pudding' was really nice. There was sushi, curries, sloppy joes, stir fry, salads, BBQ. The conversation was encouraging with British, South African, Singaporian, and Swiss friends. God has been so faithful in providing fellowship here. Joey Rosek & his family from Calvary Chapel have been blessing me as well with their Friday night Bible study and service on Sunday. (I hope to have photos soon!)

I bought extra enchilada stuff so I could make some for the housemates and food for the week...so these pictures are of our lovely dinner at home and the carrot cake dessert Jenny's mom made for us! (It had honey in it which made it amazing - I'm getting the recipe!) Once again, I heart my sweet housemates. :)

Proper Tea

This Sunday afternoon, I persuaded my housemates Margita and Christine to put off studying and go to proper tea with me in the City Centre at Auntie's Tea Shop, across from famous King's College.

Margita is from Croatia and had never had a proper English Tea with scones and cream! We enjoyed experiencing it with her for the first time. The fresh baked scones and tea were amazing, yum! We walked along the river and had a nice talk about how we have been challenged and humbled since we've arrived at the diverse backgrounds we are privledged to interact with here at Cambridge. I heart my housemates!

The Return to the Books

I haven't written anything about my course yet, so I thought I would comment on why I'm here! There is so much to distract here in beautiful and interesting Cambridge, but as the days get colder and the trees loose their leaves, there is a draw inside to a warm homes and pubs and to the books. Since most don't have TV's, our attentions and passions get caught up in the written and spoken word, which we can all agree is powerful.

My course, called Engineering for Sustainable Development, has been what I expected and more. My thoughts about how to approach design, my ethical thoughts concerning people, how I view "developing countries" are all being challenged. Would being "developed" mean being like the US? Would that be a good thing?

They claim that Sustainable Development is a homocentric worldview, concerned about man and the environment, not ecocentric, where the environment comes first. From a biblical perspective, Adam was tasked with being a good steward of the earth, subduing the animals. When sin entered that stewardship got distorted...come the Industrial Revolution, we now experience the consequences of a hurting earth. I know this sounds a bit negative, but the evidence for global warming and scarcity of natural resources is here and now. I think this hurting is not only on the physical level but the spiritual as well. I was reading in 2 Chronicles 7:14 "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." God has the ability to heal our land. I see a need for behavioral change in his people (the world) to make that happen - a humbling, a turning from our ways. Could Biblical wisdom with all this worldly wisdom help us arrive at some answers? I have hope...

The pictures above are of some people from my course at The Eagle Pub - there are people from France, China, Barbados, US, UK, Canada, Nigeria, South Africa, Pakistan, Cyprus & Egypt. I am enjoying each of them more and more. My two closest friends so far are Emily from Portland (you can barely see her head) and Keven from Northern France (red jacket on his chair). I really appreciate Rebecca from Nigeria who left her 11 month old baby at home with dad to come to Cambridge. There are some amazing people here! (P.S. I just returned from a Christian Graduate Society International Dinner and found out 2 people from my course are Christians! Yeah! A girl named Janice from S. Africa and a guy name Huag Kin (sp?) from Canada.

The second photo is some books I am reading for my course and for encouragement. "Cradle to Cradle" is a really interesting read about rethinking manufacturing processes to reuse what we now consider waste. C.S. Lewis' "Meditations" is a compilation of excerpts of his work - the photo on the front of the book is of a bench on Jesus College green. Lewis was a Professor of Literature here at Cambridge the last 9 years of his career. What are you reading?

Autumn

Just a few photos of Homerton College, where I was invited to eat lunch with my new friend Monika (who I met at Calvary Chapel Cambridge!) All the leaves are changing to beautiful bright greens, yellows and oranges as the fall. The first pictures show the trees that lead into an orchard that has apples for the students to pick. They also have a pond and two large green areas to enjoy. I know the winter is coming, so I'm enjoying all the colors of this delightful season!

First Formal Hall

Formal Hall is a tradition in Cambridge where the students join the Fellows weekly or bi-weekly to eat a nice 3-course meal (including beautiful desserts like these.) We started with drinks in a room upstairs, then dinner is served in the dining hall with a full place setting and candles, we finish with port and fruit upstairs once again. Hughes Hall does not require that you wear gowns (they look like graduation gowns) but many other colleges do. I wore mine just for fun. :) I wasn't able to attend the first formal hall, so I scheduled to come to the second which was on a Tuesday, so not very many people came, but it was really enjoyable. I sat next to Anne from Holland, a really nice girl. I'm going again Friday night, so that should be a great time! The food is good!

Stonehenge and the Fields of Gold

This past weekend my course set out on a two day trip to Stonehenge, Winchester and Hindhead (Devil's Punchbowl) to explore the concept of Roads and the Landscape. An Englishman named Jeremy Purseglove (yes, that's his name) a Landscape Architect and funny sorry teller was our tour guide. My theme album for the trip is Sting's "Fields of Gold" because he lives in the Avon Valley, just east of Stonehenge.

We met some Druids at the Henge and they told about their sacred temple where they and the witches worship. They were actually quite jolly druids, not creepy like I would have thought. (One had his cape in his moterhome :)). The stones aren't as impressive as I thought they would be, but it is amazing how they floated them down the river Avon and slide them across the frozen grass before propping them up in alignment with the moon every 60 days (or something like that). Stonehenge is essensially there to tell the seasons, a big sun dial in a way. People still come to celebrate the solstaces with all kinds of schnanaganes. Our job was to figure out a way to re-route the road so it didn't pass so close by the stones and ruin the landscape of the area.

On to Winchester, we had a nice meal at this zoo-themed resturant where we worked on our Stonehenge design, then woke up to hike a hill to overlook the town. The mist parted just in time for us to see the beautiful, quaint little town below. There lies the longest Cathedral in England where Jane Austin is buried. (Ladies, I know you are as interested as I am!) Apparently Jane lived nearby in a small village. :)

The last stop was a place called Hindhead where they are naturalizing a road (making it look like it isn't there) and replacing it with a tunnel. We hiked again out to this lookout point - all the trees are turning yellows, oranges, and bright green, it is amazing.

So my second weekend was a nice mix of touring and learning, I think I'm going to like this. :)